Saturday, 13 August 2011

Hello All, Sorry the name is a little bit ponsy but i still am trying to use up my culinary lavender in new ways lol...(Side note - Cats do NOT like the taste..)The new incredibly famous Tarte Tatin has an interesting history... apparently (after looking it up on wikepedia lol..). Tradition says that the Tarte Tatin was first created by accident at the Hotel Tatin in Lamotte-Beuvron, France in 1898. The hotel was run by two sisters, Stéphanie and Caroline Tatin. There are conflicting stories concerning the tart's origin, but the predominant one is that Stéphanie Tatin, who did most of the cooking, was overworked one day.

She started to make a traditional apple pie but left the apples cooking in butter and sugar for too long. Smelling the burning, she tried to rescue the dish by putting the pastry base on top of the pan of apples, quickly finishing the cooking by putting the whole pan in the oven.

After turning out the upside down tart, she was surprised to find how much the hotel guests appreciated the dessert. An alternative version of the tart's origin is offered on the Brotherhood of the Tarte Tatin website, according to which Stéphanie baked a caramelized apple tart upside-down by mistake. Regardless she served her guests the unusual dish hot from the oven and a classic was born.

The Tarte became a signature dish at the Hotel Tatin and the recipe spread through the Sologne region. Its lasting fame is probably due to the restaurateur Louis Vaudable, who tasted the tart on a visit to Sologne and made the dessert a permanent fixture on the menu at his restaurant Maxim's Paris.Anyways, Here is my take on the classic French dessert

The filling:1 Chopped medium conference pear
1 Sliced Large dessert apple
1 Tsp Cinnamon
20G Tightly packed brown sugar
1/2 Tsp Ground Culinary Lavender (you can do this by finely chopping it)
1 Pinch of salt (to taste30g Softened butterMethod1. Preheat the oven to 180c
2. Combine the pastry dry ingredients in a large bowl
3. Rub in the butter until the mixture looks like bread crumbs
4. Beat the egg yolks with the vanilla essence and then mix by hand into the bread crumbs
5. Kneed the mixture until dough like, adding the water.
6. Roll the dough into a ball, cover with cling film, and place in the fridge.
7. Add the cinnamon, lavender, brown sugar, salt and softened butter to a pan on a medium heat and allow to melt together.
8. When melted together, reduce the heat and place the chopped fruit in the mixture to cook for roughly 10 minutes.
9. Remove the dough from the fridge and roll till its about 4-5mm thick. Then place over the cooking fruits and transfer into the oven. (MAKE SURE YOUR DISH/PAN IS OVEN PROOF!)
10. Cook for 20 minutes, or until the crust is a golden brown, then remove.
11. Place a tart tin or place ontop of the pan and turn the pan upside down (Upsidedown cake style)

Wednesday, 2 March 2011

Recently i was talking to a good friend of mine who also happens to be an artist and graphic designer in his spare time. After checking out some of him more recent stuff i asked him if he could do something for the site... He agreed, and in exchange i would like to share a bit about the Artist himself and some of his work. The interview is below..... But first, Look how awesome this is!

Great huh?! I feel it really captures me in my purest form lolol.

Interview~

WalnutsToday I am joined by good friend and fantastic artist Andre Hanabi Drift! Men want him and Women want to be him! Welcome to Radiant Silver Spoon Andre, How have you been?

Andre

Haha, I've been well. my arm's practically a stump from all the drawing i've been doing lately but i'll live.

WalnutsGood to hear it! So lets get started, first off, tell the audience a little about yourself, your art style and how you get started.

Andre

I'm 25 living in south London, I love lasagne and cookies (not together), and my favourite song of all time is R.E.M.'s losing my religion.

I'd describe my art style as "almost bara" because although I follow a history of manga style conventions I don't think i'd call myself a mangaka (comic artist)as for how I got started started I was basically bored at school and started doodling, I didn't put a pen down for about 15 years and here I amWalnutsCan you describe Bara to the people out there... and lets face it you may need to describe Manga also haha.

Andre

Haha, well Manga is a term used for the Japanese style of drawing comic books, things like Dragonball, Sailor Moon and Pokemon are the more mainstream side of it that made a strong hold here in the west

within manga there are many subgenres

Bara is should not to be confused with Shonen-Ai (boys love) or it's more R-rated cousin Yaoi which tend to feature very feminine pretty boys

Bara is written for gay guys by gay guys so the men tend to be more... well manly

Walnuts

So we could say its basically a Masculine/Muscled sub genre of manga, with a sometimes adult theme?

Andre

Yes yes

very much so

-Andre Reaches for a Cookie, dropping crumbs everywhere. I pretend not to notice but the OCD inside me is freaking out....-

WalnutsSo what would you say gives you the inspiration to draw? Is it certain times? certain situations? certain musics?

AndreHmmm, I usually get inspiration at really weird times, like at 3 in the morning haha

I find that music definitely helps me concentrateI even have a spotify play list specifically for when I'm at work

my biggest inspiration probably comes from talking with other artists, having that community to support me definitely keeps me focused

Walnuts

Awesome, so if you had to recommend an artist to us (asides from yourself) who are you drawing inspiration from currently?

Andre

my darling Emi is an amazing artist who is always great to bounce ideas off of, in fact we tend to be very good at breaking each other out of artistic blocks. Mosskat is also a very talented artist, she just has a natural grace when it comes to setting up scenes, she also kicks me in the pants if I start slacking.Nickie Charles is also awesome as is my beloved Sable-chan who is a sweet heart.

Walnuts

Woah, sounds like you have a great community there. I have also seen Emi's stuff... she is fantastic! Might get her to do something as well one day haha.

Well Andre, as always its been a pleasure

before i let you get off to your land of art and imagination

i would like to ask you to let my readers in on a secret about you that not many people know!

Andre

I'm a natural blonde.... haha, no I kid

hmmm....

when I was younger I had a brief crush on Jackie Chan, ah the innocence of youth

Jackie Chan?? Really??

Walnuts

LOL! Hilarious!

And with that, i will let you get back to work, thank you for spending some time with me today.

From myself and the viewers of Radiant Silver Spoon i would like to wish you all the best in your future works!

Andre

No problem, hope you feel better

Walnuts

Cheers (sniffle/cough/splutter)~End~

If you liked any of the stuff you saw here feel free to check out his DeviantArt page HERE.You can also become a fan of his work at his Facebook page found HERE.

Sunday, 20 February 2011

Its been a while since i actually made anything in the kitchen that was worth sharing with you guys, but last night i found myself home, alone, on a Saturday night... you can imagine the pathetic scene..... I came back from the gym to find my house mate gone to see his family. The TV isn't working properly because of the reception mess up caused by the typical British rainfall. I have seen all the dvds we own. And i'm too broke to go out. ( i can imagine you are all shedding a little tear for me now haha.)

HOWEVER, this was a great opportunity to use up some of the random crap that my kitchen accumulates.

After having dinner, triple quarter pounder burger with all the trimmings (YUM!), i set to work dragging out what i had. Previously i had some vanilla pod steeped in sugar at the back of the cupboard which i had forgotten about, in addition to a pot of culinary lavender which i bought ages ago to try with sautéed Anya potatoes... needless to say that combination was horrendous.

So, all is good until i remember i do not have any eggs, and i am too broke to go get some seeing as they are "non essentials"... We have Butter, Vanilla sugar, Clementine Zest

Flour and Culinary Lavender..... It could only mean one thing.....

Lavender and Clementine Zest Shortbread cookies!:

Ingredients125g Butter55g Sugar (caster preferably)180g Plain FlourZest of 3 Small/Medium Clementines1 Table spoon of LavenderPinch of salt (to taste)Method1. Preheat Oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5.2. Combine the Butter and Flour in a large bowl by hand.3. Once fully incorporated add the sugar and salt to the dough mixture and fully combine.4. Add the Zest and fully combine5. Add the Lavender and fully combine.6. Roll by hand on a flat surface in a cylindrical shape (like a tube) and cut cookies vertically down with a sharp knife to a thickness of about 3/4 of an inch.7. Position on baking paper in a baking tray with about an inch of space between each one, as they will expand while cooking, and leave in the fridge for 20 minutes to cool.8. Remove from Fridge and place in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or until the cookies turn a golden light brown.9. Once finished remove from oven, place on a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes.

Complete!

By time they were sitting out cooling my house mate had returned with some of his visiting family members.. and i couldn't tell them "NO! I need those to take poncy pictures of!!!" haha.

But at least i managed to get one!

Hope you guys enjoy these as much as i did. I used Clementine because i think the taste is a bit more floral and perfumey than orange zest which can be a bit harsh. The Clementine mellowness and the floral lavender are a good combination, but im sure you guys can think of some equally great ones. All the best!

Thursday, 27 January 2011

I don't know what i have never posted about this before but in 2008 i went to the culinary Olympics in Erfurt (germany)... Being a cooking blog u would think that it would of been the first thing i spoke about... But you would be wrong lol.

Here are some of the pictures.. its was truly amazing. As always i spent my time hovering around all the sugary things!

Obligatory Chocolate Dragon (as you do haha)

Platted selection of chocolate, berry and hazlenut sweets (i think)

My favourite piece! No idea what went into it though lol... except a truckload of thought and precision.

Tuesday, 11 January 2011

I'm still on track with my new years resolutions and to date have managed not only to update my blog regularly, but also get myself to the gym, and focus more on what i moved out for!

In this post i'm going to pay my respects to (in my and many others opinions) one of the most talented and influential pastry chefs of the century, Pierre Hermé

Pierres elegant take on the archetypical French "Macaron" is what i believe shot him to notoriety! For those of you who do not know what a Macaron is just Google it and wait for the visual feast of colors.

Like all geniuses Pierre began at a young age. At 14 he began his career as an apprentice to Gaston Lenôtre, a prolific baker who sadly die a few years back. From here onwards Hermé went from strength to strength, eventually opening his first shop in Tokyo in 1998. Since then he has opened several other venues and written numerous recipe books and biographies. His work in the pastry kitchens is absolutely phenomenal.

The flavor combinations are themselves incredible, but what really is appealing with his creations are their appearances.. Hermé manages to bring the most simple of recipes to life with a variety of twists and tweaks.

Simply fantastic.... Ok Enough gushing haha!

This week i tried my hand at some classic flavor combinations with my own tweaks. its been a while since i did a recipe, but here goes!

1. Combine all of the frosting ingredients in a bowl and make sure they are fully incorporated into the mix. Then set aside in the fridge or a cool place.

- Grease whatever tray you plan on baking the cakes in. i have one designed to make 12 brownies, 3x3 inches, this recipe makes about 15 of these sized cakes. -

2. In a large bowl combine the cake butter with the castor sugar and cream them together.

3. To this mixture add, 1 at a time, the eggs. make sure to fully incorporate the eggs before adding the next one.

4. Once the eggs are mixed in add the vanilla essence and the milk and mix in.

5. Mix in the Coco powder and the flour until fully incorporated.

6. Finally add the chopped chocolate and fully combine all the ingredients.

7. Place in the preheated oven for roughly 20 minutes, checking after 20 minutes to check with a skewer whether or not they are fully cooked through. If the skewer comes out wet then place them back in the oven for a further 5-10 minutes.

8. Once fully cooked through remove from oven and leave to cool, and then decorate with icing and garnish when cooled.

And thats it!

Complete! They arent Pierre standard but these were actually really good, i brought them into work and they were gone within a few minutes.

Lol. Ive made 2 new years resolutions. These are realistic ones that i cant really not start doing because time is getting away from me and i need to keep focused on atleast a few things once in a while.

The first is I NEED TO GO BACK TO THE GYM! i lay in bed playing with my belly fat about an hour ago and suicide seemed like the only other option. Suicide is messy and a bit selfish so the gym it is lol. Used to go religiously, but you know what happens when u take some time off and get lazy... you just forget about it :(

The second is to start working towards my entrepreneurial goals.... If i want to make it into the catering industry i need to pull my finger out and start actually doing some work.

Ah, before i go, The Christmas meal was delicious if i dont say so myself. I spent about 8 hours in the kitchen with my mother trying to get everything prepared and awesome looking for Christmas day. This is how it turned out.

The table did look very indulgent! especially that decanter... i dont even know where that came from lol.

These were my favorite, My sister and Brothers fiancé have dietary needs which wouldn't permit them to eat the meat. So we made these Pygmy cranberry, lentil and red onion stuffed pumpkins.

Wishing the best for all of you. Have a blessed New year and stay tuned!